Comfortably Numb
by Strange Fuzz
Summary: Someone pays Alice a late night visit with a treatment of their own. The visitor is not a doctor, and the treatment is far from a cure.


A fic with Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" as the dialogue. I did not write this song. I love Pink Floyd.

* * *

She laid in the quiet darkness of the room, sleeping yet awake, her mind lost but not gone. In and out each breath of icy air, caressing her scorched lungs, passing over her fresh scars, soothing with hurt. The door creaked open as if drawn by her fractured breathing, allowing a thin sliver of some other universe of light into the darkness. The light stung her closed eyelids, sending colored splotches dancing across her vision. Footsteps echoed like a clock closing in on midnight. The light faded. The light disappeared. There was darkness. 

_"Hello."_

The warm words of a living creature drifted through the cold air, pulsing with gentle danger and tame lust. It spoke low and close, allowing the words to roll off It's tongue and curl against her ear. Above the sinking quicksand mattress a dim light appeared, casting a crescent moon glow over the girl's still and ghostly features.

_"Is there anybody in there?"_

The air was cold enough to make her shiver, but the creature's touch could have made the fires of Hell fade and die. It's hand dusted over her forehead, separating tangles of dark hair, revealing the broken china doll beneath. Dark spider webs of charred flesh adorned her pale skin, cracking her thin lips, running down her neck in jagged rivers. Long and frigid fingers like needles traced the burns, light and slow, down to where a thin sheet covered the rest of her fragile form. Tendrils of hot breath swept over her face as the sheet was carefully drawn back.

_"Just nod if you can hear me."_

She cringed as the freezing air invaded her exposed skin, picking at her wounds in twisted relief. The sheet slithered to the floor and the needle fingers returned to her shoulder, running down the length of her arm laced with tributaries of scars. It's fingers found her milky white hand lying at her side and slid beneath it, lifting it like a feather. It's sickly warm breath encircled her hand, moist and full of longing.

_"Is there anyone home?"_

It gave her small fingers a gentle squeeze before burning them with a kiss. It replaced her hand at her side, the mark frozen on her skin. The lips that had made the mark split open in a smile, a rising curtain exposing once-hidden razorblade teeth.

_"Come on now."_

It spread a hand across her shattered chest, rising and falling in a spastic tide, feeling for the beat beat beating of her heart. It's smile widened as It located the hum of life in her splintered spirit. She appeared as death, but her inside was still flickering with a spark of her soul.

_"I hear you're feeling down."_

It reached into the shadows beyond the crescent glow and withdrew a long glass syringe. Gleaming at the end was a mosquito-nosed needle, which soon was pricked into the shadows it had come from as if they were human skin. Guided by meticulous fingers, the syringe drew in a liquid form of darkness and held it captured, waiting to be released.

_"Well I can ease your pain."_

It bent over her as the curtain fell on It's smile, fingers ghosting over her exposed flesh, searching for a vein in the frozen sea of white skin.

_"Get you on your feet again."_

At last It's fingers reached her neck and the curtain lifted, just enough to show a glimmer of teeth. Lightly swirling her hair out of the way, It probed at the unburned spots with satisfaction and anticipation.

_"Relax. I need some information, first."_

Her brow slowly wrinkled and her eyes closed tighter as she felt the glow above her darken. It's body shaded her from the light, It's breath hot against the chosen spot on her neck.

_"Just the basic facts. Can you show me where it hurts?"_

She started slightly as its tongue flicked out against her throat, It's mark glistening for a minute as it pulled away. The crescent glow fell on her again as It rubbed her neck in small circles, drawing closer to the spot, preparing her for the mosquito bite to come. As It did so, her throat rippled gently and her dry lips parted and stretched. She remained silent, her eyes closed as if she were lifeless.

_"There is no pain, you are receding. A distant ship's smoke on the horizon. You are only coming through in waves. Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying."_

At last her words came in a flutter of wind too weak to even be a whisper. _"When I was a child, I had a fever. My hands felt just like two balloons. Now I got that feeling once again. I can't explain, you would not understand. This is not how I am. I have become comfortably numb."_

It listened with great interest, letting the pressure from It's fingers grow lighter and lighter until they were gone altogether. It brought the syringe into the glow, turning it round in the light.

_"Ok. Just a little pinprick."_

With dainty precision, It tapped the side of the syringe to expel any air bubbles. The sound ricocheted through the darkness like a miniscule clock reaching one. The mosquito began to close in, quivering with deadly hunger for human contact. It's breath seemed to hang on the needle as It spoke.

_"There'll be no more…"_

The mosquito touched down and worked in reverse. A thin jet stream spurted into her veins, mixing with her blood and rushing through her body. Her entire torso leapt upwards in a mighty jerk, each aching vertebrae of her spine cracking suddenly into place. Her eyelids snapped shut and squeezed closed until they burned. Her mouth stretched painfully wide in a soundless scream, lips splitting like torn seams and trickling blood into her mouth.

_"…but you may feel a little sick."_

She froze, bent upwards in a wildly unnatural position, until the needle was carefully withdrawn. With a feeling of being lighter than air and dead inside, her body curled into a painful form and sunk back against the bed. The curtain rose up over It's smile again, and It leaned over and lapped up the droplet of blood that had followed the needle upon departure.

_"Can you stand up?"_

It reached into the shadow that surrounded them and pinched at two places, drawing a thin sheet of darkness from nothing. It swung the sheet up flat before dropping it down to cover her completely. Beneath the blanket of darkness she began to stir. The point at her neck where the needle had injected its contents started to tingle, then burn. Soon the feeling was spreading throughout her body, flushing through her ragged limbs, setting them ablaze with warmth and desire. She began to rise off the mattress, ignoring the black sheet that cascaded down her face as she turned and let her legs drop sideways over the bed. Her eyes opened, emerald light piercing the dim glow. The curtain rose even higher on It's smile.

_"I do believe it's working. Good."_

Her feet touched down on the icy stone floor, and she found they were enclosed in tall leather boots. The tattered hospital gown she had been left in was replaced by a familiar blue dress and apron. It held out a slender hand, helping her to her feet. She stood, unused to controlling her own movements, rocking to and fro in a tide of consciousness only she felt.

_"That'll keep you going for the show."_

The shadowy creature, which had been providing the crescent light from a wide-toothed grin, stepped down from the nothing it was perched on. The creature, which moved like a cat formed from black mist, sat on the floor beside It. The two beings drank in her appearance with approval before It stepped forwards. Drawing a long knife from the shadows, It slipped the handle of the blade between her hands. She looked down at the deadly simple weapon, turning it in the light of the shadow cat's grin. It grinned along with gleeful lust, not for her, but for what she symbolized. She was an angel of chaos and destruction, an entity with an appetite for blood and revenge that she would satiate at any cost. She was a savoir of the wretched and twisted. She was their goddess.

_"Come on, it's time to go."_

Her boots crunched across the floor, her head tilted low and her eyes set straight ahead. As she reached the gap between the two creatures she stopped, avoiding both of their nonhuman eyes. Beneath them the grey floor began to twist and warp, sapping itself of its color, transforming into a fractured looking glass that began to pop and crumble. It watched her expressionless face with great intensity, ignoring the fact that the three of them were sinking into another universe.

_"There is no pain, you are receding. A distant ship's smoke on the horizon. You are only coming through in waves. Your lips move, but I can't hear what you're saying."_

She observed the floor with distant interest for several seconds before replying in a breathy voice. _"When I was a child, I caught a fleeting glimpse out of the corner of my eye. I turned to look but it was gone. I cannot put my finger on it now. The child is grown, the dream is gone."_

Her tongue trailed over the spiked skin of her lips, cleaning the damp scabs of blood. It's needle fingers burrowed into her free hand and gave another squeeze. Like smoke dispersing in the wind, their last words clung to the chilly air before they disappeared into a somewhere else very few would ever see.

_"I have become comfortably numb."_


End file.
